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'Then suddenly he started breathing heavy. I said "are you alright mate?". He said "no I feel a bit grotty",' Mr Wilde said.

When his friend and pilot passed out moments later Mr Wilde was left in control of the Cessna 172 for an hour.

'He set the controls and put me on the right path. Then he was unwell again, completely unresponsive. I called his name but he didn't answer,' he said.

Modest: Mr Wildey, pictured at Sandtoft Airfield, North Lincolnshire, says his landing was more of a 'contolled crash', but instructors say he performed incredibly well

'I said we were going to have to land soon but when he didn't respond I called "Mayday, Mayday".

The aeroplane enthusiast said he previously served in the RAF as a clerk but had never had any flying experience.

He said: 'I told them I had no flying experience, my pilot was not very well and he couldn't control the aircraft.

'I hadn't a clue what to do to get down. I could see the runway lights.

'They told me to bring her down gently, take the throttle back and I was doing that and and it seemed to be going well but I was too low, so I had to power up again.'

Mr Wildey ended up having to make four circuits of the airfield before he was able to bring the plane down.

He added: 'It was a bit of panic. I couldn't see the airport properly. I could see the lights of the industrial estate around it but I couldn't see the runway lights because they were hidden, I just sort of headed that way.

'I've never flown a plane before, I know you bring back the controls, but I didn't bring them back hard enough, so really it was nose down.

'Then we touched and it was a right bump, then three bumps. I suppose it was a controlled crash really.'

After touching down he could not reach the brakes and the plane slid off the runway, but he was able to bring it to a halt.

He said: 'Air traffic control at Humberside,
two flying instructors, and also a Sea King helicopter were all helping.
They all did their best, I was just the person holding the stick.

'They
were telling me what to do but because I didn't have any lights on I
could barely see any of the sticks which made it even more difficult.'

Speaking
to the BBC, he added he 'had plenty of doubts [about whether I'd
survive], because I just didn't know what was going to happen'.

'Luckily [the instructors] were talking to me on the radio all the time, so that was helping me. They gave me confidence.'

Mr Wildey said the pilot, who has not been identified at the request of his family, was a 'brilliant' man.

'We had a good laugh and a chat going out there and coming back and then it all happened.

'I really feel sorry for his wife and his relatives, they're the ones that have actually suffered.'

Police are not treating the death as suspicious and formal identification of the pilot was due to take place later today.

Although the landing was described as 'heavy', it was said to be normal.

Some witnesses described the plane bumping on the runway and sparks coming off the front of it.

According to the BBC, an RAF Sea King helicopter was also scrambled to help assist with the incident.

Roy Murray in the cockpit of the plane which the passenger landed at Humberside Airport last night

Some witnesses described the plane bumping on the runway and sparks coming off the front of it

Roy
Murray, one of the flight instructors who helped the passenger land the
plane, told the BBC Mr Wildey had no flying experience and did a
'remarkable job'.

Mr Murray said he was surprised just how calm the man was as he brought the aircraft down.

He said the novice flyer did four circuits of the airport before landing at 7.30pm.

'He did a beautiful landing,' Mr Murray said. 'I wouldn't be frightened to fly with him.'

Mr Murray, who has more than 30 years of flying experience, said: 'I feel satisfied but sad. It could have been a lot worse.'

Asked how he felt after the landing, he said: 'Ecstatic. Very relieved but also sad.'

Mr Murray said the atmosphere in the control tower was tense and there were handshakes but no cheers when the plane touched down.

'It was tense at times, especially the last mile or so,' he said. 'We couldn't see any lights on him.

'It
was just a silhouette in the dark. We just had to judge he was the
right height and the right speed, which he was. All due respect.'

Moments before the pilot fell unconscious, a mayday call was sent and the emergency response was declared on the ground.

Mr Murray, who is chief instructor at the Frank Morgan School of Flying, said he had never heard of an incident like this in the UK.

He said he was called at his home near Grimsby at 6.25pm and went to the tower at the airport, where the decision was taken to use the main runway which was 'lit up like a Christmas tree' as it was getting dark.

'I took him round three times,' the instructor said, 'which were reasonable but not good enough to land.

'Then, on the fourth, he made a nice landing.'

Stuart
Sykes saw the aircraft, which took off at Sandtoft Airfield, near
Doncaster, South Yorkshire, land on its third attempt shortly before 8pm.

He said: 'It came down with a bump, a bump, a bump, hit the front end down, I heard some crashing and it's come to a halt.

'There were a few sparks and three or four crashes, that must have been the propeller hitting the floor. Then it uprighted again and it came to a stop.'

Emergency services gathered at the
airport shortly after 6pm yesterday and two incoming flights, from
Amsterdam and Aberdeen were delayed while the aircraft landed.

'Remarkable job': The passenger was forced to make an emergency landing at Humberside Airport, north Lincolnshire (pictured), after the pilot was taken ill

Roads around the airport were also closed by police.

A
spokesman for the airport said: 'An emergency was declared at 6.20pm by
the pilot of a two-seater aircraft. Shortly afterwards he was taken
ill and became unable to fly it and that responsibility then fell to his
passenger.

'Humberside International Airport put
into operation their emergency plan. The passenger flew over the airport
a couple of times and then was talked down by two flight instructors
and the emergency services were waiting for them when he landed safely.'

The
flight instructors have today been praised by David Learmount,
operations and safety editor of Flightglobal.com, who said 'they did
really well to get him down'.

'A guy with no flying experience would
have found flying a light aircraft utterly different from driving a car.
In a car, if you don't like what's happening you can bring it to a
halt'

- David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flightglobal.com

Mr
Learmount said: 'A guy with no flying experience would have found
flying a light aircraft utterly different from driving a car. In a car,
if you don't like what's happening you can bring it to a halt.

'You just can't do that in an
aircraft. You can't fly slower than 60mph without falling out of the
sky.

Also, a light aircraft has a much bigger instrument panel than a
car.'

Mr Learmount, a pilot himself, said the instructors on the ground would have had to talk Mr Wildey through every step.

He said: 'They would have had to direct the guy's eyes to the instruments. They would have said to him something like: "You see that instrument on the left, can you tell me what it's reading?"

'They would have helped him manage the speed of the aircraft and the power. Ideally in these situations, another aircraft gets sent up to fly alongside and then the other pilot can talk the emergency pilot through everything.'

Mr Learmount said he understood that the passenger, attempting to land, had done two 'go-arounds' where he pulled out of touching down and pulled away to have another go.

Mayday: Moments before the pilot fell unconscious, a mayday call was sent and the emergency response was declared on the ground. Pictured is Humberside Airport

Mr Learmount went on: 'He might have
survived a bad landing but then the aircraft would almost certainly have
been wrecked. It's a very delicate thing. If you don't pull the nose up
before you land then you land very, very hard.

'The
passenger may have been helped by the fact that the pilot, on feeling
ill, probably put the aircraft into straight and level flight. You could
not have had just any old pilot talking the passenger down. It would
have had to be an instructor, because they know exactly what to do in
these situations.'

Richard Tomlinson, a friend of both men, confirmed Mr Wildey had never flown a plane before.

'He might have
survived a bad landing but then the aircraft would almost certainly have
been wrecked. It's a very delicate thing. If you don't pull the nose up
before you land then you land very, very hard'

- David Learmount

'He is a very kind and gentle man who has a passion and interest in aviation but does not actually fly himself,' Mr Tomlinson said.

'He has been a pasenger on several occasions and understands the concepts of what goes on but what he has actually done is nothing sort of phenomenal.'

Former RAF Sergeant, Graham Hendricks, 57, who is a frequent flyer from Humberside Airport, described the landing as 'miraculous.'

Mr Hendricks said: 'For a chap who hasn't flown a plane before to put it down in those circumstances is a miracle.

'It was dark and the passenger must have known his pilot was very seriously ill which would have put him under even more pressure.

'Humberside is the not the easiest airport to land at for a novice which makes it even more incredible.'

Paul Litten, commercial director of Humberside Airport, said: 'We took the distress call just before the pilot went unconscious. We immediately called the emergency services and put into action our emergency plan.'

A Humberside Police spokesman said a post mortem of the pilot will take place tomorrow and a file will be prepared for the coroner for North Lincolnshire and Grimsby, Paul Kelly.